Mr. White grew up in Manchester, N.H., and came to New York to earn his master’s in composition from Columbia in 1965. Separately, he also studied with Hall Overton in the now-famous “Jazz Loft” building on Avenue of the Americas, where Mr. Overton was also collaborating with jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk.

He retired a decade ago with a small pension and a 900-page opera called “Hester,” based on “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.